Electrostimulation is a well known technique for treatment of various medical conditions. Electrostimulation involves providing a mild electrical shock to particular regions of a human (or other) body. Such treatment is useful, among other things, in pain therapy and has been shown to provide relief from chronic pain under circumstances when other methods have failed or lost their efficacy. Electrostimulation is believed to block transmission of nerve pulses thereby interrupting the flow of "pain" signals along the body's nervous system. While electrostimulation of this type does not provide a cure to the underlying cause of pain, it is a useful palliative which can be very helpful to those who suffer from chronic pain. The term TENS, standing for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, has been coined in the art to refer to this type of pain relief by electrostimulation. See for example, Soric and Devlin, "Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation-Practical Aspects and Applications," Postgraduate Medicine, Vol. 78, No. 4, Sep. 15, 1985, pages 101-106.
While the present invention is described for convenience of explanation in terms of use in connection with TENS treatment, those of skill in the art will understand based on the description herein that other uses may also be made of the present invention, and that it is not limited to TENS and may be applied to electrostimulation in general.
TENS equipment exists but suffers from a number of limitations well known in the art. For example, much of present day TENS equipment is bulky or requires placement of needle electrodes or other separate electrodes taped to the body and connected by wires to the TENS apparatus. This makes treatment inconvenient or creates risk of infection and often requires that it provided by trained medical personnel. In other cases, even with TENS equipment having integral electrodes, it is difficult to direct the electrodes to the precise region of the body desired to be stimulated because as the electrodes are brought in contact with the body the gap therebetween across which the electrical stimulation signal is provided is hidden by the electrodes and/or the body of the TENS device. Thus, there continues to be a need for improved TENS and other electrostimulator devices which are more convenient, of a size and shape that may be easily held and manipulated even by persons of limited dexterity, are simple to operate, are easier to direct to the target stimulation region, and are effective in achieving the objectives of the electrostimulation, as for example, pain relief.